VIDEO: Is Anthony Weiner Jewish? His Mother Answers The Question For Us!

(Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 12:46 PM)

There has been some back and forth on Yeshiva World forums (homepage and Coffee Room) whether Rep. Anthony Weiner is Jewish or not. Many people claimed that his mother is an Italian, which would make him Halachically not Jewish. That would make his recent marriage to a Muslim woman perfectly fine.

Well now his mother has stated she is unequivocally Jewish, which makes her son Halachically Jewish. Anthony is married to a Muslim woman, and is still proud to yell “Am Yisroel Chai” (Jewish Nation Live) on a megaphone at the Israeli Day Parade in Manhattan.

Curious Jewish observers would like to know, how does the “Jewish Nation Live” if our highest profile Jews intermarry?

16 Comments

What a shame I would have preferred she said she wasn’t jewish. Maybe she’s just flip flopping (like any politician or their mother.) As far as “Am Yisroel Chai” is concerned someone close to him should advise him that intermarriage causes “Am Yisroel Mais” chas v’sholom. FIND A NEW SLOGAN.

If the problem is that all Muslims are terrible and should be hermetically sealed and starved until we are rid of them, then what difference would it make if Wiener is not Jewish (“That would make his recent marriage to a Muslim woman perfectly fine,” you said)? We should be aghast regardless.

But if Muslims can be considered okay on a case-by-case basis, and you would have no problem with Wiener marrying one so long as he is a Gentile, then how does he suddenly become your enemy if he is Jewish? Even if he is Halachically Jewish, he doesn’t think of himself as Jewish. He didn’t marry a Muslim to make a statement of his rebellion against Judaism. His subjective views don’t change one way or the other depending on what his Halachic status is.

So is the problem that no one should marry Muslims? Then we return to the first tzad of the ma nafshach. You already said there is a circumstance where you’d be fine with Wiener marrying a Muslim.

Anyways, get a grip. The election was yesterday. You don’t have to live every day like it’s a campaign.

Actually maybe Anthony reads YWN so here’s some advise to you Mr. Weiner.

Dear Anthony,
I’m not here to lecture you on your choice of a wife from outside of Am Yisroel. I understand that you are a secular Jew (now that the Jew part has been confirmed by your Mom) and therefore you do not believe there is anything wrong with such a union.

I also acknowledge that you are a strong supporter of Jewish (though not necessarily religious) causes and are an outspoken supporter of Israel. As such (liberal politics aside) you’re a decent guy.

However “Am Yisroel Chai” literally means “the nation of Israel (ie the Jewish nation) lives (on). How, Anthony, does the Jewish nation survive 2000+ years of exile including untold suffering and survive to still be able to call out “Am Yisroel Chai”?

I’ll tell you how, its through our stubborn adherence to the Torah laws as passed down from generation to generation. That’s our key to success. Any other nation would have disappeared long ago.

One of those Torah laws is that the child of a non Jewish mother is NOT Jewish & must be converted through the accepted Rabbinical conversion process if that child upon reaching adulthood can properly demonstrate such a desire to join our nation.

Many secular Jews who do not follow the Torah have held steadfast to only marrying within the Jewish nation understanding through the traditions of their parents that their family connection with the Jewish nation will end with them if they marry out.

So in closing Anthony, calling out “Am Yisroel Chai” at an Israeli parade, rally or at a Yeshiva dinner is quite a contradiction coming from a guy who chose to end his family’s connection with Am Yisroel by marrying out.

“There has been some back and forth on Yeshiva World forums (homepage and Coffee Room) whether Rep. Anthony Weiner is Jewish or not. Many people claimed that his mother is an Italian, which would make him Halachically not Jewish. That would make his recent marriage to a Muslim woman perfectly fine.”

Two points…there are Jewish people who are Italian. Italy is a country not a religion.
I can assure all readers that if he was Italian and Catholic, that there would be a nice Italian mother with her head in the oven over her son’s choice of a bride. He marrying a Mulsim women would probably not be met very well by most of the Italians (Catholic) that I know.

But since we already know he acts like a goy (he is clearly not Shomer Shabbos, not to mention 612 other things), so why isn’t it Lashon HaRa to enquire about his parentage. Better to leave him as a possible goy than a definite rasha.

#4 to answer your question,this is were the discrepancy is, even if all Muslims are the greatest people on earth that is not the point, we would have the same problem if it was a christian or a non jew who loves jews so much she practices Judaism. the problem is we cant honor someone who marries out of the jewish religion even if we love who hes marrying, the person who married out of the religion looses all honor and he must be excommunicated, again its not a Muslim thing or a christian thing its the action which he did which makes HIM despicable, but the person he married is not looked down upon

Frankly, both Weiner and his wife are obviously more secular then any religous leaning. If the Mrs. W were, l’havdil, an “observant” Islam, she’d probably be dead for marrying a Jew.

But let’s get over it. He was elected a Congressman, not as a Rav. There are plenty of other Jewish named intermarried politicians, but at least Weiner supports Israel. This reflects the need to combat intermarriage and ambivalence amongst secular Jews today.

There has been exactly one shomer Shabat Jew ever elected to the US Congress in the history of the US: Sen. Joseph Lieberman. By your standards, EVERY other Jewish Congressman and Senator acts like a goy. Even YWN hero Eric Cantor, one of only two Jewish Republicans in Congress. (The other is Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who is halachically Jewish but chas v’shalom a practicing Christian. She is a very reliable vote on Jewish causes, though.)

(Although none have been Shabat observant, there have been a number of Jewish members of Congress who belong to Orthodox synagogues. Sens. Arlen Specter and Ben Cardin are two such “non-observant orthodox” currently in office. There may be others.)

There have been a couple of Shomer Shabbos Congresspeople. Peter Deutsch is the one I can think of off the top of my head, but if memory serves there were four people who voted on the Clinton impeachment non-electronically, because the vote happened on a Shabbos

charliehall, I didn’t know that Specter and Cardin belong to Orthodox synagogues. Do they also belong to non-Orthodox synagogues? As politicians, they’d probably want to cover as many bases as possible.

Eric Cantor is also one of the “non-(Sabbath) observant Orthodox” – according to wikipedia, he keeps a kosher home. also he is a member of an Orthodox shul (Keneseth Beth Israel in Richmond, VA) where he davens on Yamim Norai’im and his son’s Bar Mitzvah was there as well. His brother is 100% frum (a big shot at that shul). At the dedication of the Yeshivah of (Richmond,) Virginia’s new building, where he spoke, one of the speakers, Rabbi Nate Siegel from Torah u’Mesorah, mentioned that Congressman Cantor has a weekly chavrusa with a frum Rabbi in DC.